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Harry Potter and the Dark Lord
Chapter 58 Return to Black Manor
Summary: Set in Harry's sixth year. He encounters far more than he ever could have expected, but he does not have to go through it alone. An old friend returns to help him. Harry's defeat of Voldemort rests on him getting The Scepter of Light and Dark, something that would allow Voldemort to destroy the world if he can get the whole thing. Voldemort's powers are getting stronger and Harry has more than one encounter with him.
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This Chapter: Harry returns home.
Now...on with the story!
Harry would have fallen flat on his face if he hadn't been caught by Remus, who he had not been expecting to be at the house.
"Thanks," he muttered and moved away from the fireplace so Sirius could Floo in.
"What are you doing here?" asked Harry.
"I've come with a message from Dumbledore. He says that he can't meet with you today, as something urgent has come up at the Ministry." said Remus.
A loud whooshing sound indicated Sirius' arrival behind them.
"Hello Remus," said Sirius. "What brings you here?"
"As I was just telling Harry, Dumbledore can't make the meeting today. There was urgent business at the Ministry to attend to." said Remus.
"Perhaps you'd better go upstairs and rest Harry," said Sirius.
Harry nodded and headed upstairs to his room. He was by no means recovered yet from the illness Voldemort had bestowed upon him.
Once he arrived in his room, he threw his bag on top of his trunk and flopped down on his bed to sleep.
He awoke several hours later feeling quite rested and ready to venture throughout the house again.
He changed his clothes and headed downstairs to find Sirius and Remus, if he was still there. Or had he gone back to Hogwarts? Did he have classes to teach? What was the date anyways?
Questions rapidly filled his mind and he was relieved to find the person who could answer them seated in the kitchen drinking pumpkin juice.
"What day is it?" asked Harry.
"June eighteenth, why?" said Sirius.
"I was just wondering. Where did Remus go?" asked Harry.
"Back to Hogwarts. He still has to grade the end-of-term exams. He'll be back when he's finished in a couple of days." said Sirius.
"Oh," said Harry, taking the seat across from Sirius.
"You do know that you have to make up all the work you missed, don't you?" said Sirius. "Yeah, I figured that I had to," said Harry.
"Your teachers will be owling assignments and will come here weekly after your birthday to test you on the work they give you." said Sirius.
"Joy," said Harry.
He wasn't looking forward to seeing Snape in their house and by the look on his face, Sirius wasn't either.
"I'd better go study, then," said Harry.
He stood up and walked to the library. Harry picked out several books and began reading. After several hours of reading the theory on how to Transfigure quills into goblets, the words began to blur across the page and his eyes drooped shut.
Sirius' POV
The odd silence in the kitchen had been quite unnerving to Sirius. He wasn't used to Harry being so quiet, though he supposed Harry would be different after the ordeal he had been put through by Voldemort.
He finished his pumpkin juice and headed up to James' old room. There were more things in there that he wanted Harry to have and some things that he needed to look through.
He opened the door and smiled slightly at the sight of all of James' stuff that had somehow been left behind after their seventh year and James had never asked to be given back to him.
James and Remus had loved his house, the vile little rat was the only one who didn't like it.
Flashback
"Why did you go and spend a load of gold on such a big house for one person?"
"But Padfoot, what if I get lost in here?"
"Padfoot, I think there's ghosts in the attic."
"Don't make me sleep alone."
End Flashback
That memory made him smile.
Wormtail had been afraid of sleeping by himself in the house and the rest of them had to cast illusions to make him think that they were in the room with him.
He'd never known the difference and nothing had ever attacked him while he was at Sirius' house.
He had been a pathetic coward, always depending on the other three Maruaders to protect him. No wonder he'd ended up with Voldemort and then got killed by him. Good riddance to the rat.
He noticed that a lot of things were moved around, probably from when Harry had gone wandering during Christmas. He had been quite upset at seeing all this.
Harry did have the box of things that had been left to him though and his Gringott's vault. Speaking of which, he was going to have to take Harry to the Potter vault on his seventeenth birthday.
That was a strange thought, Harry turning seventeen. Five years ago, he didn't think he'd ever get to see Harry again, let alone see him turn seventeen.
He shuddered at the thoughts of Azkaban and continued looking through James' old things.
He conjured a box and began putting things in it. Several hours later, the box was full, so he headed to Harry's room with it. He saw that Harry wasn't in his room, so he set the box next to Harry's trunk and went to go find him.
He finally found him seated in a chair in the library. He was asleep with a large book on his lap. He picked it up and saw that it was a copy of Advanced Transfiguration by Miranda Goshawk. He set it aside and shook Harry awake. Harry blinked his eyes tiredly and looked up at Sirius.
"I suggest you sleep in your own bed, not a chair," said Sirius.
"Yeah, that chair isn't very comfortable," said Harry.
He rubbed his face with one hand and staggered out of the room.
Sirius took note of several other books next to the chair Harry had fallen asleep in and smiled.
Harry was going to take his tutoring seriously, unlike the last time he'd been tutored. Although, that tutoring had been by a greasy, biased, git, so it really wasn't Harry's fault that he didn't learn anything.
Sirius gave the books one last glance before going to bed.
Sirius woke up the next morning to find an owl hovering over his head. It carried a piece of parchment tied to his feet. Sirius sat up and the bird flew down to him.
He untied the parchment and the owl flew right through his window. It must be from Dumbledore, thought Sirius. He unfolded the parchment and read the letter within.
Dear Sirius,
I am pleased to hear that Harry is doing much better. Please bring him to my office today at ten o' clock so that we can discuss the events that took place while he was held by Voldemort.
Professor Dumbledore.
Sirius did not want Harry to have to talk about what had happened to him so soon, but he knew that it would help Harry deal with it sooner.
Dumbledore had done this at the end of Harry's fourth year too, Remus had told him.
He had made Harry tell him everything that had happened when he had been Porkeyed out of Hogwarts by Voldemort right after Barty Crouch Junior had tried to kill him.
He crumpled up the letter and threw it aside before getting changed into Muggle clothes. They would have to Floo to Hogwarts. Sirius decided to teach Harry Apparition as soon as possible.
He walked out of his room and headed to Harry's room to wake him up. He knocked on the door.
Hearing no response from Harry, he opened the door. He walked over to Harry's bed and saw that he was fast asleep.
"Harry, wake up," said Sirius.
Harry mumbled something unintelligible and rolled over, burying his face into his pillows. "Harry, you have to get up. We have to meet Dumbledore at ten o' clock this morning." said Sirius.
"Don't want to," mumbled Harry from behind his pillows.
"If you don't get up right now, we're going to be late," said Sirius.
"I don't care," said Harry.
"If you don't get up right now, then I'm going to hex you," threatened Sirius. Harry grumbled and threw the blankets off of himself.
"I'm up. Happy now?" asked Harry.
"Yes. Now get dressed and come down to breakfast," said Sirius before closing the door and heading downstairs to the dining room.
They ate breakfast quickly and headed to the living room to Floo to Hogwarts.
Harry took a handful of Floo Powder from a red box on the mantle.
He threw the powder in the fire and called, "Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore's office!"
Harry was gone in a flash of fire.
Ch. 58 Meeting with Dumbledore
Harry's POV
Harry fell out of the fireplace and into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore wasn't there, so Harry sat down across from Dumbledore's office and waited for Sirius to arrive.
He wasn't looking forward to this meeting. He rubbed at his left arm, where he was uncomfortably aware of the fact that he could have gotten the Dark Mark. He heard roar of flames and turned to see Sirius step out of the fireplace.
"That's not fair. I always fall whenever I Floo," complained Harry.
"I've had more practice than you," said Sirius as he took a seat in a chair next to Harry.
"So--" began Harry, but he was interrupted by Dumbledore.
"Hello Sirius, Harry," said Dumbledore.
Harry turned to see Dumbledore walk in the room wearing bright purple robes with rainbows on them. He thought that Dumbledore's robes were somehow meant to calm him down, however, he just thought they were strange. Oh, well, to each his own, thought Harry.
"Now, I know that you would rather not talk about what happened while you were held by Voldemort, but I must ask you to tell me what happened." said Dumbledore.
Unlike his fifth year, when Dumbledore wouldn't so much as glance his way, Dumbledore locked eyes with him. They remained that way for several minutes in silence before Harry consented to telling Dumbledore everything that had happened to him. Harry lost track of the time as he spoke. When he finished, there was complete silence. Dumbledore was the first to speak.
"Thank you, Harry, for consenting to share your information with me. I will have to look into the strange occurrence when Voldemort tried to give you the Dark Mark. It could have been the fact that you were not actually willing to take the Mark. However, those are just my thoughts. I will have to put in some research and I will get back to you when I find something relevant," said Dumbledore.
Harry noticed that Dumbledore did not look disappointed that he had consented to take the Dark Mark, on the other hand, he looked somewhat happy. Why would he be looking happy? Harry soon got his answer.
"The reason I wasn't able to meet with you earlier is because the Order recently acquired an item that we have been seeking all year. Actually, we got it when we retrieved you and Ginny from Azkaban. In all the chaos, neither Voldemort nor his Death Eaters thought to secure that which we both have been seeking."
Dumbledore stood up and headed to one of the cabinets behind his desk. He bent down and came up with a plain white box about the size of a shoebox. He sat back down at his desk and held the box out to Harry.
"I believe this is rightfully yours," said Dumbledore.Harry took the box and opened it. Inside were four separate golden pieces and the blue gem that he had been given by Merlin.
"It's rightfully yours, so we didn't put the pieces together," said Dumbledore.
Harry pulled the four pieces out of the box and carefully fitted them together. He held the scepter in his left hand and placed the gem on top with his right. At the exact instant that the gem touched the golden top of the scepter, he felt a rush of power that was exhilarating. He felt strange, like he could walk out right now and kill Voldemort.
"That was strange," said Harry.
"What?" asked Sirius.
"I feel this strange sort of power, like I could go and kill Voldemort right now," said Harry.
"You probably could. The scepter has probably unlocked the power that your mother gave you. Voldemort wouldn't have been able to even use the scepter, he knows no love. Your power allowed you to retrieve a gem that had been thought lost forever, those powers have been amplified now. But you must not go and try to kill Voldemort. You need to learn to use the powers that you have now before you can even think about killing him. I will make arrangements for you to train after your tutoring is over. You may go home now. I believe you should start studying. You do want to pass sixth year, don't you?"
The twinkle was back in Dumbledore's eyes as he motioned for them to use his Floo. Harry and Sirius went over to the fireplace and took a handful of Floo powder from the pink and purple flowerpot on the mantle.
Harry said, "Black Manor," knowing that he was finally home.
Well everyone, this is it. You have just read the last chapter of this fic. I'm so happy, I've finally completed this one. I'd like to thank all of my reviewers, I couldn't have done this without you! And thanks also to Mistress Wolf, for encouraging (and sometimes threatening) me to write and not give up on this.
See you again soon, and those of you who are impatient, read my other story When Dreams Come True and Finding a Father, a Severitus Challenge and full of angst!
So long for now, Lil Padfoot!
